In a wireless communication system, a mobile user, henceforth referred to as subscriber station (SS), when powered on can be in either connected state or idle state. While in a connected state, the SS maintains association with a base station (BS), whereas in an idle state the SS does not maintain any association with the BS. Instead, it maintains an association with a paging controller (PC) that stores the up-to-date information about its location information. While in connected state or idle state, an SS needs a unique identification at the BS or PC. Currently, there are different mechanisms to implement this identification. For example, in the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 based WiMAX, a connected mode SS is identified through its connection identifiers (CIDs) that are assigned to it by a BS. On the other hand, in IEEE 802.16 based WiMAX, idle mode SSs are identified by their MAC IDs. Similarly, other wireless networks have their own mechanisms to identify connected and idle mode SSs. The proposed invention can be used to implement efficient identification of both connected and idle mode SSs in wireless networks. An IEEE 802.16 based WiMAX network is used as an example for the description of an embodiment of the present the invention; however, it may be applied to any other wireless networks based on other standards.
Thus, a strong need exists for efficient techniques for identification of connected and idle mode users in wireless networks.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.